Sculpting Minds with Jace in Modern

On the days leading up to the banned and restrictedannouncement, I was fairly sure that Bloodbraid Elf would come off the banned list and nothing else would happen to Modern. To say I was wrong is an understatement, as Wizards injected the most powerful planeswalker of all time into the format alongside the seemingly innocent value elf. I’m not going to build a ton of Jace decks just yet, because I need to know the metagame in order to build good control decks. Instead I will share my thoughts about which cards and strategies whose value will be boosted.

Ramping Out Jace

Accelerating out your four-mana planeswalker has been a winning strategy in Vintage, Legacy and Vintage Cube for a long time, and I believe the same will be true for Modern. I like the talismen, because it allows to keep up a defensive play, like Fatal Push or Dismember, the turn you play it. In the case of Noble Hierarch, I imagine various Bant builds with disruptive creatures and heavy hitters to close out the game. This deck will not be looking to control the game; rather, it will try and play cards with high individual power level and play them ahead of schedule thanks to the Hierarch and possibly Birds of Paradise. These mana creatures are rather bad top decks later on, but can then be used to block and protect Jace. Which leads me to…

Blocking Becomes Valuable

Controlling Jace decks will look to find cheaper, defensive cards that protect Jace and are not embarrassing to play. Lingering Souls will double as a win condition in Esper builds while straight Blue/White can play Wall of Omens on turn two and protect Jace ahead of time. I don’t quite think that Squadron Hawk has what it takes in this era of Magic, but I’m sure it will be tried out. These decks will already run Snapcaster Mage for obvious reasons, but the 2/1 body attached is now more important than ever.

Burn Spells Get Better

Burn spells used to be pretty bad against blue Modern decks outside of their sometimes relevant ability to pressure the blue mage’s lifetotal. Their delve creatures or Tarmogoyf would be too big, and you needed to resolve two burn spells in order to kill one. That changes with Jace in the picture, because now your copies of Lightning Helix and Lightning Bolt will actually be decent cards. If they get to “brainstorm” once, and you finish Jace off with a Lightning Bolt, you should be happy. Be aware that experienced players will use Jace’s +2 ability more frequent than you might expect.

Creature Lands Are Great

We should see more decks than usual pack a few creature lands to be better equipped to deal with Jace. I only listed the three-power ones, because I believe lands like Mutavault and Shambling Vent will prove lackluster thanks to their two power instead of three. Jace decks will be built to keep the battlefield as clean as possible, and the difference between two and three power on your creature land can be the difference between life and death against Jace.

Whaaat, Free Spells?

Whether you get to untap with Jace on the battlefield the turn after you cast him is critical. If you manage to “brainstorm” with him twice, you should be in good shape depending on how your deck is constructed, so that is your goal. I believe a card like Slaughter Pact will help you achieve this and should see play in the coming months. Having a Doom Blade the turn you cast Jace will be powerful, but also being able to Snapcaster Mage back the Pact later with only two mana up sounds delicious. I listed Disrupting Shoal because a friend of mine is certain it will become a mainstay way to protect your Jace, but I have my doubts. Very interesting nonetheless.

ETB Effects vs. Fatties

It is inevitable that the Jace player will need to “unsummon” your creatures from time to time, and having creatures with relevant “enters the battlefield” triggers on them will reduce the power of Jace. On the flipside, Jace loves to bounce big fatties with delve or green monsters with huge power.

Hopefully you got a tip or two that will lead you to even more productive thoughts about abusing or beating Jace, the Mind Sculptor in Modern. Let me know if you have some tricks up your sleeve that I need to know about for my next Modern tournament!

With national titles in Legacy and Vintage, multiple Grand Prix money finishes in Modern and a newly found affinity for 1v1 Commander and Pauper, Andreas has an opinion about every constructed format except Standard.